504 



Sierra Parime, which by its position, and its ex- 

 tent of more than 25,000 square leagues, well 

 deserves to be withdrawn from the neglect in 

 which it has been so long buried. It remains 

 from the confluence of the Apure as far as the 

 delta of the Oroonoko, constantly three or four 

 leagues removed from the right bank of the 

 great river ; only some arrotes, or rocks of 

 gneiss-granite, amphibolic-slate, and greenstone 

 advance as far as the bed of the Oroonoko, and 

 give rise to the rapids of Torno and of la Boca 

 del Infierno #. I shall name successively from 

 N.N.E. to S.S.W. the different chains which Mr. 

 Bonpland and myself recognized in proportion 

 as we approached the equator and the river of 

 the Amazons. 1st. The most northern chain 

 of the whole system of the mountains of Parime, 

 appeared to us to be that which stretches 

 (lat. 7° 50'), from the Rio Arui, in the meridian 

 of the rapids of Camiseta, at the back of the 

 town of Angostura, towards the great cataracts 

 of the Rio Carony and the sources of the Ima- 

 taca. In the missions of the Catalan Capucins, 



* Vol. v, p. 687. To this series of advanced rocks those 

 also belong which pierce the soil between the Rio Aquire 

 and the Rio Barima j the granitic and amphibolic rocks of 

 the Vieja Guayana and of the town of Angostura, the Cerro 

 de Mono, on the south-east of Muitaco or Real Corona ; the 

 Cerro of Taramuto, near the Alta Gracia, &c. (Vol. v, p f 

 690, 754.) 



